Why the home woes for our Sacramento Kings?

[Woot!]

Yer Kings are 21-14 at home, 22-13 on the road.

They are one of only two NBA teams w/a better road record than home records. (Without looking it up, do you know who the other team is?)

Question is: why is that?

The Kings' home crowd has rightly been praised for being crazy-loud and enthusiastic. Light. The. Beam. They certainly seem to be doing their part.

And yet by my count whereas the Kings are tied for the 2nd-best road record, they have the only the 14th-best home record.

What gives?

 

[The_Jamal]

I don't think anything all that statistically significant. They had 3 quick home losses the first 2 weeks of the year, they had those 2 December games where we lost to a injury-depleted CHA and WAS as two of the worst losses of the year. Outside of that, losses to PHX, DEN, PHI, MIL. 5 of the 14 losses are within 4 points.

Probably just more randomness in a small sample than anything else. I have no doubt HCA will be huge for us in the playoffs.

 

[Fantazija]

I don't think anything all that statistically significant. They had 3 quick home losses the first 2 weeks of the year, they had those 2 December games where we lost to a injury-depleted CHA and WAS as two of the worst losses of the year. Outside of that, losses to PHX, DEN, PHI, MIL. 5 of the 14 losses are within 4 points.

Probably just more randomness in a small sample than anything else. I have no doubt HCA will be huge for us in the playoffs.

Philly loss was probably the worst of the season.Up by 20 , no Embiid and Harden.

 

[Shaqfuey]

Remember that 3 of the first 4 on the 0-4 start were at home. They just came out of the gates slowly while trying to fit the pieces together.

 

[The_Jamal]

Philly loss was probably the worst of the season.Up by 20 , no Embiid and Harden.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Stellar 1st half, totally crumbled in the 2nd. Similar to that CHA game with no Ball and the Wizards didn't have Kristaps or Beal I think

 

[funkykingston]

Yep, I think The_Jamal and Shaqfuey nailed it. Just a poor start to the season and then a few later games that didn't go their way at home while a couple away games did.

That said, a team that wins 2/3 of their home games and is .500 on the road will be right around 48 wins for the season.

The Kings are winning 60% of their home games and 63% of their away games. Most of us were hopeful that this would be a good/winning season, but I don't think very many of us thought this was a possibility this year.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

The Kings are winning 60% of their home games and 63% of their away games. Most of us were hopeful that this would be a good/winning season, but I don't think very many of us thought this was a possibility this year.

If this doesn't tell you how hard internalized sports trauma is to get over... Home "woes"? Leave it to Kings fans to look at a .600 home record as a cause for concern.

 

[funkykingston]

If this doesn't tell you how hard internalized sports trauma is to get over... Home "woes"? Leave it to Kings fans to look at a .600 home record as a cause for concern.

Right?

Even after this season I'm guessing that the first tough stretch the Kings hit next season will have way too many of us wondering if the current success was just an aberration.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I think this is a function of the early season struggles. I expect we'll be a dominant team at home next season. Especially if we get the usual breaks that home teams get, which we were not getting until recently.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

Yer Kings are 21-14 at home, 22-13 on the road.

They are one of only two NBA teams w/a better road record than home records. (Without looking it up, do you know who the other team is?)

Question is: why is that?

The Kings' home crowd has rightly been praised for being crazy-loud and enthusiastic. Light. The. Beam. They certainly seem to be doing their part.

And yet by my count whereas the Kings are tied for the 2nd-best road record, they have the only the 14th-best home record.

What gives?

From a food perspective, we've been playing really well at home this year. Undefeated actually. Or rather, I am undefeated against the food. Does the lasagna really die though, or is it resurrected? Doctrine holds that if it perishes in a state of grace (i.e. properly sauced) - the lasagna descends first down the hatch - and then straight to heaven.

 

[Woot!]

If this doesn't tell you how hard internalized sports trauma is to get over... Home "woes"? Leave it to Kings fans to look at a .600 home record as a cause for concern.

OR one might reasonably wonder how it is that, in a league w/30 teams, the Kings are one of only two w/a better road than home record. Trauma isn't the answer to everything.

 

[QWERTYLICIOUS]

If this doesn't tell you how hard internalized sports trauma is to get over... Home "woes"? Leave it to Kings fans to look at a .600 home record as a cause for concern.

Yeah, I came here to say the same thing....

When did a 0.600 record ANYWHERE (Home, Away, or Neutral) become a "cause for concern"???

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

OR one might reasonably wonder how it is that, in a league w/30 teams, the Kings are one of only two w/a better road than home record. Trauma isn't the answer to everything.

, right back at you.

It would be a "reasonable" thing to wonder if the Kings had a better road record than their home record, and their home record was 14-21, instead of the other way around.

 

[Padrino]

Yeah... I have a hard time characterizing the Kings' home court record this season as woeful. They've been inconsistent at home in a way that other top teams in the league have not, but they're also in year one as a group. MIL, PHI, BOS, DEN, and even MEM all have more experience together. The Kings are learning how to be a winning team on the fly, and the results have been f***ing marvelous, even despite some of the hiccups that have occurred along the way (ie: inexplicable home losses, failing to beat up on teams with absent stars, etc.). Hopefully the Kings will be able to take full advantage of their home court in the playoffs, because the Golden 1 Center is going to be insane.

 

[The_Jamal]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1637928458985816065

Maybe crap like this is a problem too? There's no universe in existence where Reaves should have 29 more FT attempts in a month than De'Aaron Fox.

 

[ockingsfan]

I LOVE the fact that we are debating what's "wrong" with the Kings when they "ONLY" have a 21-14 home record!

 

[forza kings]

Maybe this team is just going out there and playing the best bball they can regardless of where they play at. They are not affected by the crowd one way or other.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1637928458985816065

Maybe crap like this is a problem too? There's no universe in existence where Reaves should have 29 more FT attempts in a month than De'Aaron Fox.

I don't like harping on it but Kings are getting bottom of the barrel officiating as a result of not having TV appearances. We should see a more home dominant team in the playoffs and I suspect we'll see it next year when I presume we'll get 15 or more national TV games. Given how exciting the offense has been the NBA would be pretty nuts not to give us a lot of games if we are a hit in the postseason.

 

[Woot!]

I don't think anything all that statistically significant. They had 3 quick home losses the first 2 weeks of the year, they had those 2 December games where we lost to a injury-depleted CHA and WAS as two of the worst losses of the year. Outside of that, losses to PHX, DEN, PHI, MIL. 5 of the 14 losses are within 4 points.

Probably just more randomness in a small sample than anything else. I have no doubt HCA will be huge for us in the playoffs.

Sounds about right. Thanks for the thoughtful response!

 

[Lionheart]

Not really much of a discrepancy in home versus away. At least not enough to get worked up about anyway.

 

[Woot!]

Remember that 3 of the first 4 on the 0-4 start were at home. They just came out of the gates slowly while trying to fit the pieces together.

Good point. That plus just a bit of randomness is probably enough to explain it.

 

[Woot!]

Not really much of a discrepancy in home versus away. At least not enough to get worked up about anyway.

Well, the point is that there usually IS a discrepancy. That's what's expected. Essentially the same record is pretty unusual.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

Importing from No Topic thread... maybe we actually are a good defensive team?

https://twitter.com/statuses/1636789359474094084

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Importing from No Topic thread... maybe we actually are a good defensive team?

I can't at all come up with a proper explanation for the home v. road differences. It's odd to say the least.

But in terms of possibly being a good or, possibly better put, a decent defensive team - I usually roll my eyes when I hear these Nat'l pundits on ESPCNN and NBATV talk about the KINGS defensive rating because they clearly don't really have a clue. They just scratch the surface WRT to team stats and regurgitate the narrative they hear from others.

For example, we all can easily look up and see what the KINGS surrender in terms of PPG and what their overall defensive rating is. But a couple things are missing from that picture that these pundits don't consider and are seemingly oblivious to.

One is the KINGS pace. Everyone can easily research and discover that they are the highest scoring team in the league. That's easy. And they set one of the highest paces in the league, if not the highest (sorry, didn't bother to check). So it stands to reason that with such a high pace they are going to surrender more points, no matter how good their defense might be, compared to teams that slow the pace much, much more.

So that accounts for a portion of their overall defensive rating.

But the 2nd factor, which is more important IMO, is - what is the KINGS defensive rating in Q4? And even more importantly than that, what is the KINGS defensive rating in the final minutes of Q4?

Again, I haven't researched it lately, but I do recall their Q4 numbers being much better than their overall rating and their defensive metrics in the final minutes was even better IIRC. Like top 5-10 better.

I only know of this because it has been brought up and circulated on social media and a few of the really knowledgeable deep-diving pundits have talked about it. So whenever I hear one of these so-called analysts bring up the KINGS 26th or whatever defensive rating as a "concern" but never mention anything about their Q4 and final minutes rating -- I tend to disregard them. They aren't worth listening to IMO, as they clearly lack the expertise and/or the drive to deep dive to really know their $#!t.

Honestly, I routinely read better analysis on this forum and on social media from certain folks that have consistently demonstrated a higher level of aptitude, drive, and expertise.

 

[dude12]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1637928458985816065

Maybe crap like this is a problem too? There's no universe in existence where Reaves should have 29 more FT attempts in a month than De'Aaron Fox.

Wow. This is unreal but we all know it happens yet when you see something like this, it hammers home the point

 

[gunks]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1637928458985816065

Maybe crap like this is a problem too? There's no universe in existence where Reaves should have 29 more FT attempts in a month than De'Aaron Fox.

This is why I'd hate for us to get the Lakers.

I'm not afraid of the team, I'm afraid of the refs and Silver turning every game into '02 WCF game 6, because you friggin KNOW that they would.

Basketball is a bit of a sham sport, I was just about done with it until the Beam Team sucked me back in.

 

[Kingz19]

Kings are a relatively weak home team for a team that will likely have 50 wins. If their road record was more .500 like most teams at their level than their home woes (yes WOES) would be a disaster.

Kings are the 7th best record in the league and I believe the 15th best home record. That’s weird. There is teams that won’t make the playoffs that will finish better at home. There will possibly be teams in the Kings 16 year long playoff drought that were better at home.

Kings seem to play better defense on the road. They have won a lot of games where the offense wasn’t rolling on the road. How many games have they won at home where they didn’t shoot well? They’ve won a lot of them on the road.

They play from behind better on the road. . Teams get into these ridiculous rhythms offensively at Golden 1…even in most of the wins there. Kings don’t seem to have an edge there overall. it’s not a good sign when a lower seeded opponents openly say they love playing there.

atleast not the edge you want at home when you sit where the Kings do.

The road record is worth celebrating but there are different standards. You’re rightfully expected to win more at home. So many times this season the Kings have come home from a road trip hot for a let down..or gone on a road trip after a home let down and played well. Their road work has made the season.

So their home record is very baffling and concerns me.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

This is why I'd hate for us to get the Lakers.

I'm not afraid of the team, I'm afraid of the refs and Silver turning every game into '02 WCF game 6, because you friggin KNOW that they would.

Basketball is a bit of a sham sport, I was just about done with it until the Beam Team sucked me back in.

Yeah, the bias is created because the league allows constant conversation and arguing from players. A popular player and/or a player with more pull and power in the league will stick in the mind of an official....simple psychology. If they would cut this out of the game, more like how the college game is run, then it would significantly lower bias

 

[Kingz19]

Kings actually remind me in more ways than one of the 2001-2002 Dallas Mavericks. They were an awesome team so that is good,

First, with the defense but for this thread the home/away gap or lack thereof.

Mavs finished with a better home record than road, as I suspect the Kings probably will but not by much.

They were one of the top 4 teams(Kings, Lakers, Spurs) within 4 games of eachother but while the Kings, Lakers, and Spurs were dominant home teams and good road teams…

Dallas had the best road record in the NBA but finished fourth in the West because they really didn’t have another gear on their home floor and had a significantly weaker home record than the other three teams.

Kings only lost 5 games at ARCO that season, two of them to Dallas. I remember being more worried playing Dallas at ARCO than in their AAC. Because they were the same team but at home other intangibles came into play at home. Their defense was even worse at home similar to the Kings. They get more emotional. They take more Ill advised shots to get the crowd going or to stop a run. They got more worked up by officiating, They didn’t execute as well in crunch time at home. They were a pretty unflappable crunch time team on the road. Very similar to the Kings. Kings perform better in the clutch/second half on the road. They also keep their composure better on the road.

And the Kings went 3-1 @Dallas that season/postseason and was 2-3 @ ARCO vs Dallas.

Kings were so good at home that season that I was able to remember all the games they lost in the correct order without looking it up.

Dallas
Seattle
Indiana
Lakers
Dallas